Idle thoughts – Unstructured musings from Joel Dunn…

Google video chat

I am totally enthusiastic about Google’s new video chat feature. It’s browser-based, with no install other than the CODEC browser plugin. The audio and video quality is outstanding. I’m thinking that this may finally be the catalyst to bring videoconferencing to the masses. I’ve been a proponent of ad hoc video for a long while, but H.323 and SIP clients have a heavy footprint, have issues with NAT/firewall traversal, and have often had a high price point. Apple’s iChat brought great video chat to the Mac community in 2005, but that was not cross platform. Sure, Skype, etc. have offered interoperable video, but not at the quality of the Google offering. Great job, Google!